PEO/cysteine composite nanofiber-based triboelectric nanogenerator for tiny mechanical energy harvesting

Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has acted as a promising method for capturing mechanical energy. However, traditional polymer triboelectric materials result burden to environment, the natural/biodegradable tribo-materials have the disadvantages of poor output performance. For this purpose, we proposed a polyethylene oxide (PEO) /cysteine composite nanofiber film (PCF) which prepared from biodegradable polymer PEO and natural cysteine. Thanks to the superior tribo-positive properties of PEO and cysteine, the electrical performance of PCF-based TENG (PC-TENG) with 4 wt% cysteine is several times than that of pure PEO nanofiber film. In addition, PC-TENG obtain better power density (6.6 W/m2), which is 3-110 times more than that of studies using related eco-friendly materials as tribo-layer. Importantly, we designed multi-layer funnel-shaped TENG (MF-TENG) which constructed by 4 layers of PC-TENG, which can effectively harvest a variety of tiny mechanical energy to built self-powered electronics devices by integrating the power management circuit. This research offers an efficient approach for the practical application of natural and environmental-friendly material-based TENGs in energy harvesting and power supply in Internet of Things.